Golf club grip

ABSTRACT

Traditionally, a change out of the handle or grip coating on golf clubs is a difficult and expensive operation, which, according to the invention, is greatly facilitated in that the coating (16) is mounted on a thin-walled, stiff tube (10) designed with a longitudinal rib/groove profiling (16,12) on its interior side, while on the upper end of the club shaft (2) there is secured another and slightly narrower, thin-walled holding tube (4) having on its outside a complementary profiling. Thereafter desired handle or grip changes can be effected by the golfer in a simple manner, only by an easy axial insertion of the exterior grip element (16,10) onto the holder tube (10) and an associated locking together by means of a snap lock coupling (14,18 or 32,34). The rib/groove profiling is of the undercut type, whereby a very firm holding engagement is achievable in spite of the use of the thin-walled tubes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a golf club and more particularly tothe handle or grip thereof, the invention dealing with the design of aneasily exchangeable grip on such clubs. The most common is that thehandle portion is provided by mounting of a special handle element, theso-called grip, on the upper end of the club tube or rod by a rathercomplicated technique, and it is not possible to carry out any easy orquick exchange of such a grip. It is well known, therefore, that thegrip is exchanged only when it is worn down to such an extent that itwill no longer provide for a safe hold of the club, this amounting to areal repair rather than just a change of a club part. This repair isboth expensive and time consuming, and it can be made by the golferhimself only in exceptional cases.

It would be desirable that the golfers themselves could carry out notonly such a repair, but also an easy and rapid change of a prefabricatedhandle element, whereby it would be possible for the golfer even duringthe game to change between different grip elements adapted for differentsituations of use.

The idea of such a design it not new, and several proposals for suchchangeable grips have been given. In practice, however, the proposals sofar have been turned down by the international golf organisations, notbecause of non-attainment of the desired advantages, but because thereare associated and apparently non-acceptable drawbacks, which should notbe further specified here. It is to be emphasized, however, that thepresent invention provides for an exchange system which, almostsensationally, has been found acceptable by the said organisations, suchthat the system can be used in practice in international competitiongolf.

One of the said known proposals is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,939,according to which the handle end of the club rod is rigidly providedwith a downwardly converging carrier bushing for a correspondinglyshaped, resilient outer tube, which can be mounted on the bushing inbeing introduced over the upper, broader end thereof. This introductionwill be rather difficult, as the outer `grip tube` shall be expanded forpassing over the said broader end, and it is a serious drawback thatthere is no effective prevention against a mutual rotation between thecarrier bushing and the outer tube; moreover it is considered unluckythat the outer pipe at any place of it can be drawn radially outwardlyfrom the carrier bushing. Also, after all, a changing of the grip tubewill still be a difficult operation, which may well be done for renewalor repair, but not for an operational rapid replacement with anothertype or dimension of the outer pipe.

According to U.S. Pat. No. 3,524,646 it has also been proposed that theentire handle portion of the club may be detachably secured to the clubrod as a separate unit, which will then, of course, be changeable withanother, corresponding unit of some other shape or character, but alsothis solution has been professionally rejeted. It is conditioned byspecial and therewith heavy coupling means for joining the upper end ofthe club rod with the upper extension constituted by the entire handlepart, and the latter part itself should have to be made as a stiff andrelatively expensive element.

Still a further proposal for exchangeable grips is disclosed in U.S.Pat. No. 4,826,168, where a cylindrical grip element can be insertedover the upper end of the club rod and be secured thereto by means of aparticular end fixture, which, however, requires a special design of theupper end of the club rod. Neither in this case there will be any safetyagainst mutual rotation of the club rod and the surrounding grip part,and not either against radial retraction of the outer grip part from theoutside of the club rod or pipe.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is the aim of the invention to provide a solution, whereby it ispossible, in a fully suitable manner, to effect a change of an outergrip element on the top end portion of a golf club by an operation thatis easy and convenient to carry out for the attainment of a stablefixation.

According to the invention this is achievable when the handle portion ofthe club is designed to have an inner tube member for fixed mounting onthe handle end of the club shaft and an outer tube member forreplaceable mounting on the inner tube member, wherein the inner tubemember is a preferably straight cylindrical member of a rigid material,e.g., metal or plastics, the outer side thereof being profiled with asystem of longitudinal ribs/grooves having a pitch and an amplitudewhich are both small relative the radius of this tube member, and thatthe outer tube member, having at its outside an optionally conventionalgrip material coating, is likewise made from a rigid material and has acomplementary groove/rib profiling for insertion engagement with theprofiling of the outside of the inner tube member, the handle furtherhaving means for releasable axial fixation of the insertion jointbetween the outer tube member and the inner tube member or the clubshaft, respectively. With the specified design of the telescopic, rigidtube portions any possibility of a mutual rotation between the tubesafter the mounting will be excluded, and with the specified rib/grooveprofiling having narrow cross sectional dimensions the tubes may have arelatively small wall thickness, such that they do not disqualify thehandle on account of increased thickness.

The outer tube may be extra thin when the profiling on both of the tubesis of the undercut type, as the tube will then be safeguarded againstlocal, radial bulging out from the inner tube, which, itself, may beeffectively anchored to the club shaft, e.g. by means of a strong glue;thereby also the inner tube may have a small wall thickness. This is ofparticular significance in that consequently it will be possible to usefor the exterior grip coating the same `grips` as already existing formounting directly on the club shafts.

The fixation of the outer tube against retraction from the inner tube,of course, should be very efficient, but this is rather easilyachievable, e.g. with the use of various types of snap lock means, whichcan also be easily releasable when this is expressly desired. When thegolfer has a number of different grips at disposal it will even bepossible to change the grip during the game, either for adaptation to aspecial situation or only because of a grip having become more wet thandesired.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following the invention is described in more detail withreference to the drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective exploded of view of a handle according to theinvention,

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view thereof,

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view of a part thereof,

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of a locking part therein, and

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view illustrating another lockingsystem.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In FIG. 1 is shown the upper end of a golf club shaft 2 and a thinwalled tube 4 to be mounted on that shaft with snug fit for a rigidfastening by means of glue. In its outer side the tube 4 is providedwith a relatively large number of longitudinal ribs 6 with intermediategrooves, see also FIG. 3, and moreover this tube has a collar portion 8at the end facing the shaft 2, this collar portion being a locking meansas described below. Also shown is a tube 10, the inner side of which isprofiled with longitudinal ribs 12 adapted for reception in the groovesbetween the ribs 6 of the tube 4, when the tube 10 is axially insertedover the tube 4. At its front end the tube 10 is provided with a numberof forwardly projecting locking pawls 14. For mounting on the outside ofthe tube 10 is shown a conventional golf grip 16, which is a cylindricalor hood-like member moulded in a rubber like material with a grippingpattern in its surface.

The grip 16 can be fastened to the tube 10 in quite the same manner asit would otherwise be fastened directly on the club shaft 2, and asmentioned the tube 4 can be effectively secured to the shaft by asuitable glueing technique. When the shaft--or the shafts in a set ofclubs--have once been provided with the tubes 4, the user will then beable to change, very easily, between different grip elements 10,16, asthese elements are freely insertable onto the tube 4, confer FIG. 2. Bysuch insertion the pawls 14 will lockingly engage in locking holes 18 inthe collar portion 8, whereby a safe axial anchoring will be achieved.This anchoring, however, will be easy to release by forcing the pawls 14inwardly, see also FIG. 4, whereafter the grip element 10,16 will beeasy to retract from the tube 4.

Of course, a certain standardizing for clubs of different types will berequired, but in practice only few different shaft diameters are in use.

As shown in FIG. 3 the said ribs and grooves are preferably designed soas to be undercut, whereby an intimate fixation between the thin walledtubes 4 and 10 is obtained.

FIG. 5 illustrates an alternative possibility for the axial locking ofthe mounted grip element 10,16. Here the outer end of the inner tube4--or even the corresponding outer end of the shaft 2--is connected withan inwardly projecting flange 20, from which, at more places around acentral opening in the flange, there extend locking hooks 22, which attheir outer ends continue towards the central axis through oblique armportions 24. In a corresponding manner hte outer pipe 10 has an inwardlyextending flange 26 with a central opening 28, from the edge of whichthere projects a bushing 30 having at its exterior end a collar widening32 for cooperation with the locking hooks.

By the mounting of the grip element 10,16, the collar flange 32 will hitagainst oblique edge portions 34 on the locking hooks 22, such thatthese will be swung out and at the end of the mounting and snap in againso as to lock the bushing 30 and therewith the entire unit 10,16. In thetop portion of the standard grip 16 there is provided a hole 36 havingthe diameter of a golf tee shaft, and when such a tee is stuck throughthe hole 36 the oblique arm portions 24 will be swung out for releasingthe locking engagement, as illustrated in dotted lines, whereafter thegrip element 10,16 is free to be pulled off.

It has been endavoured to design the system in such a manner that thechanges can be effected without the use of special tools, but theinvention, of course, will also comprise the implication of otherlocking arrangements, which might require a tool, e.g. a screw driverfor an end screw on the grip, cooperating with a threaded hole in afixed plug in the end of the shaft 2,4.

As mentioned, the tubes 4 and 10 are preferably of a straightcylindrical shape, but the invention is not limited to that. Thecooperating surfaces may well--and even advantageously--be slightlyconically shaped, particularly when produced by injection moulding,although it may then be necessary to renounce the undercut lockingengagement. Correspondingly it would be possible to design the smoothsurfaces with a non-cylindrical shape for adaptation to special shapesof the club shaft and the outer grip, respectively; besides, the saidsmooth surfaces should not necessarily be smooth.

It will be a further advantageous possibility to make the grooves in thetube 4 be slightly wedge shaped, with the wider width at the free end ofthe tube, and with the ribs of the tube 10 being shaped complementarily.Hereby the introduction of the tube 10 is facilitated, as the tightcoupling will not be established until at the end of the introduction.With an otherwise straight cylindrical profiling of the tubes theundercut shape of the ribs and grooves can be maintained. Besides, aslightly wedged configuration can be used also as far as theheight/depth of the ribs and grooves are concerned.

I claim:
 1. A golf club handle of the type comprising an inner tubemember for fixed mounting on the handle end of a club shaft and an outertube member for replaceable mounting on the inner tube member, whereinthe inner tube member is made of a rigid material, the outer sidethereof being profiled with a system of longitudinal ribs/grooves havinga pitch and an amplitude which are both small relative the radius of theinner tube member, and wherein the outer tube member, having at itsoutside a grip material coating, is made from a rigid material and has acomplementary groove/rib profiling for insertion engagement with theprofiling of the outside of the inner tube member, the handle furtherhaving means for releasable axial fixation of the insertion jointbetween the outer tube member and the inner tube member or the clubshaft, respectively.
 2. A handle according to claim 1, in which therib/groove profiling on both of the tubes is of the undercut type.
 3. Ahandle according to claim 1, in which the fixation means comprise a pawllock system at one end of the assembled tubes.
 4. A handle according toclaim 1, in which the fixation means are constituted by a snap lockingsystem at the outer end of the assembled tubes, inside therein, whilethe outer end portion is provided with an orifice for insertion of atool to cause a release of the locking engagement.
 5. A handle accordingto claim 1, in which the rib/groove profiling is shaped slightly wedged,so that an operational engagement is not established until the lastphase of the bringing together of the tubes.
 6. A handle according toclaim 1, in which the rigid material of which the inner and outer tubemembers are made is selected from the group consisting of metal andplastic.
 7. A handle according to claim 1, wherein the inner tube memberis a straight cylindrical member.
 8. A handle according to claim 1, is aconically shaped member.